Taoiseach dictates the terms, but at what cost?

Enda Kenny should have faced an Oireachtas committee over the Callinan scandal, writes Michael Clifford

NIAL Fennelly could have labelled the Taoiseach a liar. The retired Supreme Court judge could have forced the resignation of the elected leader of the country. There was enough circumstantial evidence available to Fennelly’s commission of inquiry to rule that Enda Kenny was not telling the truth.

It would have been a judgement call, based not on verified facts or documents but on an assessment that, on the balance of probabilities, the Taoiseach was not telling the truth about his role in the “retirement” of Garda commissioner Martin Callinan.